Skip Novak/big ocean sailing expeditions- Arctic and Antarctic

Skip Novak, born in 1952 is an American based in Europe. He is best known for his participation in four Whitbread Round the World Yacht Races since 1977. In that year at the age of 25 he navigated the British Cutter KINGS LEGEND to 2nd place.

Skippering the INDEPENDENT ENDEAVOUR in 1979, he won the Parmelia Race from Plymouth to Freemantle Australia.

He skippered Simon Le Bon's DRUM in the 1985/86 Whitbread Race coming 3rd. He wrote a book entitled "One Watch at a Time" about this experience and it was published simultaneously in England (David and Charles) and in America (W. W. Norton).

In 1989 he was project manager and skipper of the FAZISI, the first Soviet entry in the Whitbread Race, and he chronicled this watershed event in his book "Fazisi - The Joint Venture" which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award in Britain.

Wishing to combine his mountaineering skills (New Zealand and the Alps, expeditions to East Africa, Sikkim, Nepal, Patagonia, South Georgia and Antarctica) with sailing he built the expedition yacht PELAGIC in Southampton in 1987 and has since spent fifteen seasons in Antarctic waters, twelve of which were leading combined climbing and filming projects based from the vessel.

In 1993 and again in 1996 he and Pelagic were featured in one hour programs for ESPN which were aired worldwide. He is frequently asked to comment on high latitude adventuring and ocean sailing by radio, TV and print media and is a regular contributor to many sailing magazines worldwide and also for the Daily Telegraph in London.

During the last six years he occasionally has returned to top level ocean racing on large multihulls. In 1997 he navigated the French catamaran EXPLORER to a sailing record in the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu (5 days 9 hours). In 1998 he co-skippered EXPLORER with Bruno Peyron breaking the sailing record from Yokohama to San Francisco (14 days 17 hours). In January to March 2001 he co-skippered the 33 meter French catamaran Innovation Explorer to a second place in the millennium non-stop, no limits circumnavigation The Race. See www.therace.org

In 2002/2003 Skip project managed the construction of his new Pelagic Australis, a 23 meter purpose built expedition vessel for high latitude sailing in order to augment the charter operations of the original Pelagic. Launched in September of 2003 she is the flag ship for Pelagic Expeditions.

In summary Skip Novak is one of most experienced polar skippers in the world.

His team of expert skippers and crew and their two expedition yaghts; Pelagic and Pelagic Australis are rated as one of the finest outfits operating both Antarctic and arctic waters.